The Lady’s Sickly Husband

With nothing to do, she raised the carriage curtain and looked out.

As the 15th passed, the weather began to turn warmer, the red bright sun hanging up high in the sky and the snow melting.

Finally, the snow started to melt, and the golden sunrays edged the snow with a golden lace. Mo Qianxue was in a better mood. With this, in the near future, the valley could witness the start of construction.

When the snow was melting, the road was slipper than usual, so the carriage drove not fast. Yet, since there wasn’t delay, by the time they got back to the Wang village, it was exactly for lunch.

When the carriage arrived, Ning Shaoqing was staring up under the big tree at the yard gate, looking as if his mind had left this turbid worldly earth and travelled beyond the sky…

His face wasn’t as bleak as in the morning, and the furrowed eyebrows were loosened too. The feeble yet upright body standing under the tree carried an air of refresh and graceful. As chilly wind blew, the inky hair floated in the air and then swirled down like completing certain dance.

As the wind blew Ning Shaoqing’s clothes and hair, it also blew off the snowflakes yet to melt off the tree branches to join in the dance.

A big tree in the courtyard, the wind, the dancing snow, and the elegant and stern handsome man…

When the carriage approached, Ning Shaoqing, standing there, his long and slender hands crossing behind his back, didn’t notice. Yet, Mo Qianxue was fascinated by the picture and remained so even when she disembarked the carriage.

As Mo Qianxue walked to him, Ning Shaoqing finally turned back to look at her, with a gaze carrying bottomless rolling lovesickness in the depth of his eyes…

The lovingly stern way that he stared at her made Mo Qianxue suddenly be in the mood for poetry. She grinned at him, “fairy snow, fairy snow/ blowing, blowing everywhere/ would that I/ too, could fly/ lightly, lightly through the air/ like a wee, crystal star/ I should drift, I should blow/ near, more near/ to my dear/ where he comes through the snow.”

Hearing this, Ning Shaoqing smiled and took her hand, raising eyebrow, “Lady Ning is a poet?”

Only when Asan, Awu and Tong Zijing’s servant were present did Ning Shaoqing called her lady. And when the couple stayed alone with each other, the addressing term changed.

Usually, he would call her Qianxue, or the dearer Xue, or the teasing Xuexue.

“Lady Ning isn’t a poet. But she learned some in the past and can recite a few of them.” Mo Qianxue laughed.

“I understand. It’s good to recite a few poems.” Ning Shaoqing wore a light smile, “A good poem that you just recited. It should be a work of a famous poet. I’ve never heard of this poem; so could you tell me the writer?”

“Umm… I forget.” Mo Qianxue was surprised. She remembered that it was a poem of Sara Teasdale, but if she told him the name, he would probably ask further who Sara Teasdale was, so she chose to tell him that she forgot so as to avoid troubles.

When the couple chatted, Mingyue and Caixia also got off the carriage and glanced around inquiringly, but they remained standing well-behaved, which made Mo Qianxue very satisfied.

She had to admit that nanny Mu was a good discipliner. Their contracts and the information that she got in the carriage proved that they had been sold to nanny Mu a month ago, and now their manners and behaviors were poles different from ordinary coarse country women.

Seeing Mo Qianxue didn’t want to linger on poetry, Ning Shaoqing let it go and looked into the direction along her sight. There stood two girls, and he asked with a smile, “They are the servants you bought in the city?”

Mo Qianxue nodded, “Yes. One knows embroidery and the other is a cook, so they can make or fix clothes and cook for us. They are good-looking and nice in character, so I take them back.”

Ning Shaoqing replied, “Good, as long as you like them.”

At the sight of his smile, Mo Qianxue waved her hand to Mingyue and Caixia, “Come over…”

They answered yes and paced over in small steps. Mo Qianxue introduced, “This is my husband…Mr. Ning.” She felt either lord or master was improper.

For a moment, she couldn’t think of a suitable addressing term. Although Asan and Awu called him lord, the girls were bought back to serve her and help her with domestic chores, it sounded weird to call him lord, so, after a pause, she decided to let them call him mister.

Mingyue and Caixia looked at each other, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, “Nice to meet you Mr. Ning.”

Ning Shaoqing took a casual glance at them, raising his hand to let them get up, and urged, “In the future, you’re lady’s servants. You’ll be held responsible if there is anything wrong in taking care of her.”

He was used to being a superior, so the moment he spoke domineeringly, the two girls involuntarily trembled and hurriedly replied, “Yes, mister. We’ll try our best to serve lady.”

Mo Qianxue also understood that Ning Shaoqing was building authority for her, but seeing them shaking, she felt a little pitiful on them and joked with him, “Look at you. You’re scaring them.”

Then she turned to the girls kneeling on the ground and held them to get up. In a fluster, Mingyue and Caixia stood up when Nizi, who had just finished cooking and heard the sound of carriage, walked out, “Mister, aunt, lunch is ready. Come and have lunch.”

“Nizi, come here.” Mo Qianxue smiled and waved at Nizi, introducing Mingyue and Caixia, “This is Mingyue, and this is Caixia. They’re servants that I just bought.”

Then she introduced Nizi to them, “This is Nizi.”

Since Nizi walked out from the kitchen with a apron around her waist and reporting the lunch, Mingyue and Caixia thought that she was also a servant in the family, so they greeted her all smiles, “Nice to meet you, Nizi.”

Yet, at the sight of them, Nizi stunned for a moment and couldn’t say a word for long. She was sad that aunt Ning bought two servant girls and afraid that she wouldn’t need her in the future.

This young girl was innocent to display on her face what was in her mind. Seeing her expression, Mo Qianxue understood at once and shook her head with a smile.

“Nizi, Mingyue and Caixia just come here, unfamiliar with the house. They need your help. In the future, you still come here as usual and give a hand together with them, okay?”

These three girls were of similar age. They should get along.

In the end, Nizi was merely a twelve-year-old girl, and instantly her slight unfriendliness disappeared hearing that she could still come here in the future.

With a grin, she greeted them like a little host.

After lunch, Ning Shaoqing was about to go to the study room when Mo Qianxue urged him to go back to the bedroom and take a rest, since she remembered his unhealthy look in the morning and that there weren’t things needing his assistance.

Ning Shaoqing couldn’t dissuade her and pulled her into the bedroom too before lying in bed.

Mo Qianxue was free of business and decided to spend the afternoon with him. In a few days when the snow melted away completely and the construction started in the valley, she would be busy again and wouldn’t have so much time for leisure.

Just now after lunch, she had already told Nizi to show Mingyue and Caixia around and let them get familiar with future work.

Thinking over everything. It seemed that there was indeed nothing to do! Hence, she lay down, relaxed.

Ning Shaoqing lay on the inner side while Mo Qianxue on the outer side. The air was warm and sweet. Mo Qianxue took out a book and began to read.

It was a book of ghost stories that she had bought in a bookstore on the way to Tingfengquan. This kind of books were rare in this world, so she didn’t hesitate to buy it upon spotting.

Ning Shaoqing got up late in the morning and wasn’t sleepy, so he leaned on his elbow and read the book together behind her. His breath blowing to her neck made her unable to concentrate and constantly think of something else.

Yet, the urging voice of Ning Shaoqing rang again, “Next page.”

Mo Qianxue was upset, “I haven’t finished yet.”

Ning Shaoqing lovingly stroked her hair and took a glance at her. Seeing that she was absorbed in reading, he lay flat again and despised, “So slow.”

Mo Qianxue felt lazy to argue with him. She was slow? Wasn’t it because of him breathing out against her neck and distracting her?

Ning Shaoqing seemed to be impatient while waiting, so from time to time, he either pulled her hair or pinch her nose, making her unable to focus at all and get no plot of the story for a long time.

Mo Qianxue set up angrily and was about to fly into a fury when Ning Shaoqing told her the story, “Wangsheng lusted for beauty and died of his heart being dug out. The demon was captured by a Taoist. In order to save Wangsheng, his wife ate the spit of a beggar so that Wangsheng was saved. A disgusting story.”

An earth-moving romance was told by him in a few sentences and in a tasteless way. Mo Qianxue confused at once.

He had read the book! Then why did he play naughty while she was reading? For a moment, he let her turn page and the next moment he criticized her for reading slowly. It was fault-finding! Fine!

Understanding this, Mo Qianxue was so angry that she wanted to scratch him with her nails.

As she thought about it, the idea was turned into action. She put down the book and rode on Ning Shaoqing’s body, scratching on the tickle spots all around his waist, chest, and armpits.

At once, Ning Shaoqing grabbed her by the hand, and as he pulled harder, her body involuntarily leaned nearer towards him.

Naturally she struggled and, seeing his jade-like neck, gave a bite at once.

While they were playing and laughing, there was a knock on the door.

The knocking sound instantly stopped Mo Qianxue’s revealing white teeth aiming at the delicious neck.

In an instant, every move stopped.

Then they heard Awu’s voice, “Lady, sister Fang is here. She has important things to discuss with you.”

Grabbing a pillow, Ning Shaoqing threw it at the door. Usually sister Fang didn’t voluntarily come to her, so Mo Qianxue believed it must be something serious.

Hence, Ning Shaoqing’s “get off” and Mo Qianxue’s “I’ll be there right away” rang nearly at the same time.

Actually, Awu felt depressed about it too. Why was it him that got injured every time? Why was it always his turn? Asan had gone to Tianxiang city while Nizi was showing Mingyue and Caixia around. Now there was only him in the yard.

Sister Fang used to enter the inner courtyard directly, but ever since Tong Zijing moved in and once sister Fang accidently approached him near and was thrown out by Tong Zijing’s guards, she didn’t dare to come in anymore.

In the yard, sister Fang paced back and forth.

Awu had heard the laughter from the inner room, so he tried to avoid and sit under the old tree in the outer courtyard when he run into sister Fang…

Mo Qianxue broke away from Ning Shaoqing’s grabbing and got off the bed, grumbling to herself, right, she shouldn’t have acted unruly in the broad daylight. She discovered that as long as she and Ning Shaoqing hid in the room and made out, there must be knocking on the door to interrupt it.

She wondered weather it would form a psychological trauma.

While tidying up her clothes in the room, she told Awu, “Let sister Fang come into the living room.”

Finishing this, she was reminded of the reason why sister didn’t come in and burst into laugher, adding, “Tell her that Tong Zijing is in the sculpture workshop. Let her come in bold.”

Awu accepted the order and went out. When Mo Qianxue reached the living hall, sister Fang was there already waiting for her.

Seeing Mo Qianxue, sister Fang hurriedly walked to her, “Mrs. Ning, Baiyunju sent people here.”

Ning Shaoqing in the inner room, hearing the word of Baiyunju instantly sat up and pinched his fists to make the bones crunchy.

He slightly squinted his eyes, his movement of sitting up as elegant as a leopard, yet his eyes shooting beams of danger.

In the past, Mo Qianxue merely slightly toughing Jian Qingyou during the first aid was enough for him to knock over the vinegar jar and rub her lips until they bled… At last, it took a long time for the vinegar fog to fade away.

Then, when he had witnessed Tong Zijing walking Mo Qianxue to the door and joking with her, he had come back, destroyed the ox cart and slaughtered the ox.

Until later, although he had had no choice but take Tong Zijing back, he covertly let Ji Xuyao to try every means to occupy most of Tong Zijing’s time.

Yet, this Su Qi was the most painful scar in his life. The clear mark of teeth on his neck, the soaked inner clothes, and the bath bucket…

He didn’t dare to think along with the picture. His anger and jealousy was enough to form a hurricane, but before Mo Qianxue, he didn’t dare to show a hint of vinegar.

Because he felt that in the incident, he even was unqualified to be jealous. Hence, he hid the vinegar deeper and deeper into his own heart.

Moreover, he always knew that Mo Qianxue wanted to entitled the future sales channels of soy sauce and vinegar to Su Qi. No way! Would there be an end of the connection between them if this situation continued?

Therefore, he set up such a big bait to pay off his kindness and at the same time lead him out of Tianxiang city. When Su Qi returned to the capital, there would be people contacting him to negotiate on the contract.

As for the soy sauce and vinegar, he privately owned more than a property like Tingfegnquan. He also possessed tea business which boasted chain stores everywhere, so they didn’t need Su Qi to open the sales channels.

By then, certainly he would summon the manager here and explain to Mo Qianxue gradually…

“Well?” Did Baiyunju send over people every day? Mo Qinaxue sat in a chair, fingers knocking at the table, and waited for sister Fang to tell her more.

“It’s different this time. They don’t come to fetch tofu; they send over a cook, saying that he comes to learn to make tofu and other bean products. They also said…that you agreed.”

“Is there a problem?”

“You really agreed? Then, when Baiyunju knows how to make tofu, will they need ours?” Sister Fang was a little anxious.

Mo Qianxue understood that and smiled to let her calm down.

“Mrs. Ning, are there any hidden reasons that you must agree?” Sister Fang thought that Mo Qianxue was forced to do so, “Do I need to add some tricks?”

“Sister Fang, you’re thinking too much. Just teach the cook if he wants to learn.” She hadn’t expected that Su Qi acted so hastily that he sent over a person without pondering for a day or two and wanted to learn all the products such as dried beans, thin bean pies, vegetarian chicken and so on all for once.

Although it wasn’t different to learn, it took time to make quality products. Alright, after all, she had promised him.

In fact, Mo Qianxue misunderstood Su Qi who at this time was already on the way back to the capital. This was an idea of manager Li of Baiyunju.

He had heard his lord told him that if the staff didn’t know how to make the bean products after studying the recipe, he could send people to the tofu workshop at the Wang village and then, when their staff learned it, send them to the capital as soon as possible.

Since they could directly learn at the tofu workshop, then why to bother and waste time and raw material in studying the recipe on themselves? Hence, after selecting a cook, manager Li directly send him here.